


That's What Fables Are Made Of

by Kimcat



Series: Phic Phight 2020 [10]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Creepy things, Danny is overwhelmed, Demons, Gen, My final prompt fill for the Phight, Phic phight 2020, Team Ghost, ghost - Freeform, my brain created weird things, owl lady, things that go bump in the night - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:01:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23940487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kimcat/pseuds/Kimcat
Summary: Danny finds that there is much more lurking beneath the surface then what he'd first believed. Ghosts were one thing but when he starts encountering creatures that could be, mostly anyway, considered alive, he needs to learn to cope with real monsters and fast.
Relationships: Jack Fenton/Maddie Fenton
Series: Phic Phight 2020 [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1685026
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27





	That's What Fables Are Made Of

**Author's Note:**

> Here is my final entry into the Phight. It got long, what else is new lol but still I hope you enjoy this one ^^  
> Unbetaed but please R&R

**Little-egg-buddy**

**AO3: LittleEggBuddy**

  * ******Danny discovers that there are much worse creatures lurking in the dark than ghosts**



**-.-.-.-.-**

****Mentions of suicide, as well as some blood and violence.**

It wasn’t anything too noticeable at first. Small things that seem to scurry on by in the shadows, dark figures lurking at the side of your vision only to disappear when you turn to look directly at it. 

For Amity park things that go bump in the night were normalcy, and no one knew that better than one Danny Fenton/ Phantom. The half ghost teenager was an oddity in his own right, and very much classified as one of those things that bump in the night. 

As a ghost who fought other ghosts, he knew a thing or two about them, however, that was all he knew for a time. And as he lay in his bed staring up at the glow in the dark stars that were on his ceiling, he desperately wished he could return to the bliss of only knowing about ghosts. 

The night had been nothing but hell and he dearly wished that wasn’t an exaggeration. He knew there were other things out there sure, but this… this was too much…

The first thing he had discovered in the ‘awful cryptid but not a ghost’ department had been something that resembled a human head with bat like wings. The thing had zombie looking flesh as it seemed to resemble leathery tissue paper rather than skin, even it’s bat like wings looked far too frail and thin to carry its form. It’s sunken in, white milky eyes seemed to stare ahead into nothingness, like a fish that had been on ice for days, yet it seemed to see just fine. It’s wiry straggly twine like hair looked burned and brittle, just like the rest of it. 

When Danny had first encountered this creature he understandably believed it to be a ghost. It was only when he blasted it, and the thing ate his ectoblast, did he notice the distinct lack of glow the thing had going on. If anything it seemed to be sucking in light around it… 

It would hiss and spit and sputter and bear it’s freakishly long fangs at him throughout the battle. It was surprisingly hard to hit! Worse yet it seemed to be able to zap his strength from him by sucking in his glow like some sort of black hole. When it wasn’t stealing the light sources around and getting stronger it was directly trying to bite Sam and Tucker!

Protective instincts flared when he realized it was some sort of vampire. A head bat vampire but still… 

When he’d managed to finally freeze the thing solid and watched with tired satisfaction as it dropped like a rock, the first thing he tried to do to dispose of the creature was to try and suck it into his thermos. When it started to fly forward Danny sighed, only to yelp in dismay as the icy beast got stuck to the end of the thermos like a vacuum cleaner picking up a piece of sheet metal. 

“I guess it really isn’t a ghost…” Tucker commented when Danny released the suction button from the thermos, letting the creature once again drop like a rock.

“It’s a vampire,” Sam said. “A real life vampire! A life vamp! Steals the life force of ghosts and the lifeblood of humans... Sick.” She seemed pleased at least.

“Great vampire. Sure. how do we trap it so it doesn’t hurt anyone else?” Danny asked, frowning deepening as he poked the icy lump with his toe.

“Steak through the heart? ...Does it have one?” Tucker offered, peering down at it from behind Danny.

“We’re not killing this thing! It’s alive! ...I think…” Sam tried to argue frowning down at the strange thing along with her male friends. 

“Undead is more like…” Tucker shuddered as he spoke out the words as if the very phrase brought a chill to the boy.

“I’m going to figure out how to get rid of it. One way or another it can’t stay here, you saw it attack! And we were prepared for one! Imagine what would happen if it took someone off guard or actually managed to get a good bite in?” Danny shot back firmly. “I don’t know what it is but it’s not something that I can just let go… Even the ghosts that attack don’t actively try to kill people like this thing…” 

With his piece said Danny zipped off to grab a large rock. He hovered over the creepy thing a moment staring down at it with a hardened frown before he simply let the rock drop through him. It gave a sickening crunch and splat with dark black goo oozing out from under the rock. 

“Should we check it?” Tucker asked nervously. “I mean it shouldn’t have survived that but…” 

Danny felt his frown deepen but with a nod turned the rock invisible to see beneath it. He instantly released his hold on the rock with a grimace. “Looks squashed and dead,” he said with a small gag escaping him. “Why’d you make me do that Tuck?”

Tucker thankfully looked about as ill as Danny felt and had the decency to look ashamed, but still, he shrugged. “Stranger things have happened then a weird flying head thing coming back from the dead… I mean a lot of the stuff we fight are literally doing just that…”

Danny couldn’t argue with the logic… he still hated it though…

And things only seemed to go downhill from there. After their encounter with the… head vamp, the next thing he’d come across was something that could have easily been mistaken for a more… normal well, normal for Amity anyway… 

There were mentions of children, young kids suddenly walking off into the woods almost like they were being drawn in by something that anyone over the age of ten seemed unable to hear. Even Danny himself had patrolled the area of the woods as Phantom and found nothing. No sounds, no odd creatures or ghosts… nothing. 

His ghost sense went off a lot, but it was a deep blue nothing like his usual icy mist. It was a bad sign if nothing else… The last time he had that deep colour he’d encountered the head bat. 

It wasn’t until Youngblood had come to ‘play’ with him that he was able to make any sort of headway in what had been happening along that stretch of woods. What he had thought was an odd sounding bird chirp, like that of a barn owl, was apparently something much more sinister… 

“You seriously don’t hear that call for help? I thought you were ‘mister big shot hero’,” Youngblood chastised during his ‘game’ of hide and go destroy stuff. 

“I hear a deranged owl…” Danny offered with a confused shrug. “I know you and er… your friend there,” the parrot on Youngblood’s shoulder scoffed, “are close but I didn’t know you could talk to normal birds…” 

“What? No! I can’t do that… Though that’s an awesome game for next time! I could be a lion tamer or a circus master and you could be a bear or something!” the green haired kid was absolutely taken with the idea. 

“Please no.” The bony parrot sighed out.

“Yeah, your right. We should play hero first! Let’s go see what that owl lady is calling about huh?” Youngblood chirped eagerly to Phantom suddenly changing his pirate outfit to that of something that could pass for a sickly green superman. 

“Well, for now, playtime’s over.” Danny interrupted. 

“Huh why! I thought you liked playing hero?” The kid whined out with a very obvious pout warning of the tantrum to come.

“Play- … I don’t  _ play _ hero, I am a hero!” Danny rebutted with an angered huff. “And as a hero, I say this isn’t something you wanna be playing with, so go back to the zone before I give you a time out” Danny held up his thermos and gave it a little shake for emphasis on his threat.

“Manie!” 

“Captain, he’s right you know… If that is what I believe it to be, we want nothing to do with that… that heathen,” the bony bird practically spat out. 

“What is it then?” Danny asked, curious now as well as more than a little on edge.

“I dunno what they were called originally, but I know ‘em now as death owls… Demons that lure kids in to eat em.” The bird said with a shudder, “We best be going.” 

Youngblood made a face somewhere between a mix of disgust and fear. “Yea I didn’t really wanna play hero anyway,” he waved off trying to downplay his real thoughts on the matter. “See ya later if ya don’t get fully killed that is!” 

Danny shot the brat a flat look as he zipped away. With a steadying breath to steel his nerves, he proceeded forward into the woods. 

It took some back and forthing and a lot of concentration, but eventually, he came upon a section of a hollowed out cliff face that opened into a shallow cave. Danny had barely caught sight of the pair of brightly glowing yellow eyes before his shoulder was hit, wrenched back by razor sharp talons.

Danny yelped out in pain as a chunk of his shoulder was torn off, and he himself was sent tumbling away into a tree from the force of the bird’s momentum. A screech alerted him to the thing rounding back on him, and he’d just barely turned himself intangible as the bird like beast struck the tree he was against. 

Danny had a good point of view of this creature now, with its talons scratching through his intangible body to the back of the tree behind him, and once again he was thrown for a loop when he saw it. It really did look like an owl, that much was obvious, but it was far larger than any owl he had ever seen before… and much longer and disproportionate as well. 

The feathers looked tattered and ragged like the bird had been actively rubbing up against rocks and mud, as some of the feathers were bent at awkward angles. Its beak was stretched wide, easily able to engulf his head if it opened those jaws fully, and while he already had a good view down the thing’s throat as it snapped at his face, he had no intention of being eaten by this… harpy?

He shot off an ice blast at the creature. Ice had worked well on the last thing so maybe?

It screeched as he launched the ice blast, making Danny grin. At least that was a point in his favour! As he flew back the thing shook its head flicking free frozen feathers to the ground. It kicked off the tree and barreled towards him. Danny was ready though and quickly launched an icy blast down its throat as he dodged away from the beast.

It howled in agony a loud woe filled sound that hurt Danny’s head and he swore it was close to bursting his eardrums. He covered his ears as the thing shrieked, only for a second later to have the thing slam into him once again. 

It let loose its sonic attack directly at his face while its talons dug deep into his hips. The creature’s sonic attack was quickly met with his own, as Danny too wailed out in pain. The ecto powered attack won out and soon the creature was nothing but an exploded bunch of feathers and smears of… something, along the ground and what was left of the trees that had been unfortunate enough to be in front of his fury. 

Danny panted heavily and forced his transformation rings back with a pained grunt. He did not want to see what kind of damage that creature gave him, and how bad that would be once it transferred over into his human form. He’d never hear the end of it if he bled out in the middle of nowhere… 

Still… Danny couldn’t suppress the shudder as he turned towards the splotches of dark brown, almost black goop that littered the ground. HE had done that in a fit of panic and pain. That wasn’t a ghost, it wasn’t a creature that could hold up to that and keep fighting later on. 

He tried to tell himself that it had to be done, that the creature had to be put down one way or another, but he still couldn’t shake the distraught feeling that overcame him. What if that was his parents that had attacked him? Would he have been able to stop the attack that he had inadvertently launched? Could he be capable of… killing his parents inadvertently if they ever seriously hurt him?

He tried to argue no, that this creature he knew he had to end it… to kill this thing as it was seriously hurting people, where his parents, while they could seriously hurt him, were ultimately just simply doing their jobs. Still…. He couldn’t shake the haunting thought… 

He gulped and did his best to swallow away his fears and stress them for a less dire time, he still had work to do after all… When his protective nature had finally won out Danny made his way back to the small hollow in the hillside. He lit his hand up with ecto energy to better see the nooks and crannies around the cave and instantly wished he hadn’t.

There were bones littered about the floor. Human bones the flesh and muscle picked clean and the bones even looked to be in rough shape. That alone wasn’t what got to him though, no it was the size of the skulls that lay about the area…

There were also items strewed about, backpacks, papers, clothes, shoes, a hat, and what may have either at one point been a cell phone or a handheld game system. Danny’s heart sank at the refuse and remains that littered the area. He had found rather definitively what had happened to the kids… 

Something in the recesses of his mind sparked back to a science class where they had dissected owl pellets… these poor kids… could they have been swallowed whole? That seemed far worse than the creature simply killing them to rip them apart for a meal…

Danny flew out of there as fast as he could. He needed to report this to the police, then he needed to grieve that he’d failed those kids… maybe he should talk to Jazz about this one. His core thrummed angrily, mournfully, against his chest as he flew. 

Once the cops were alerted to the situation, (thankfully he knew a few on the force he could approach and be treated as a vigilante or simply a concerned citizen and not as a criminal,) Danny face planted into the pillows on his bed. 

It took him a lot to push past the pain in his chest from the feeling of having failed his duty, his protective obsession, and he had redoubled his efforts to make sure that nothing of that nature happened again…

Of course, nothing ever seemed to go right for him. But at least this time it wasn’t in Amity… he could at least be thankful for that right?

Well maybe not… but it was the little things he found that kept him going after all.

His parents had wanted to take a road trip for the long weekend, which normally would be fine, but of course, they had noticed Danny’s shift in behaviour over the past week since those kids had been… discovered in that state… 

His parents had somewhat correctly assumed the correlation to the tragedy, but not the true reason behind the change in his behaviour. Regardless they felt the need to urge him into some family bonding, and there was no better way to do that for a Fenton than through convoluted ghost hunting in a few towns over, and almost three hours away. 

And of course, Danny was not allowed a say in the manner at all. He would have much preferred his parents to take him to ‘bond’ over the new space exhibit in the museum. But that would have been nice, and fun! And ancient’s he feared what would happen if the universe took pity on him for a weekend. 

Still, when the inevitable happened, it wasn’t any less annoying…

The ghost that they were investigating had been that of some vengeful woman, or so the tale went… the woman’s husband had cheated on her, left her and taken their kids with him to the new woman, only to have that woman kill the kids and her husband before killing herself. The woman distraught at the news, already heartbroken from having lost the custody of her kids, couldn’t deal with the grief and committed suicide herself.

Her spirit still haunted the house apparently, almost a full twenty years later. Danny really hoped not, but at the same time knew better than to think this would be only rumours. 

As they approached the simple unassuming house though, Danny’s ghost sense went off in that special way he was fastly learning to hate more and more. Mainly the fact that his parents were staring right at him when it happened. Danny offered a nervous grin as Maddie and Jack exchanged a glance with one another before staring down their son with a critical eye. 

“I felt a really strong chill just now… Didn’t you guys?” Danny offered with a shaky smile that he hoped looked more realistic then it felt putting it on.

Jack at least seemed to take his boy’s words in stride eagerly jumping towards the house now with renewed vigour. “I knew it! There is a ghost here! And it seems you were right about Dann-o being sensitive to ectoplasmic disturbances Mads!” 

Danny opened his mouth only to snap it shut without asking the question that was burning on his tongue. It would be best just to accept the excuse handed to him on a silver platter and move on with his half life. 

Maddie at least seemed to be a little more sympathetic though a crash from somewhere in the house turned her attention away from her teenager and towards her husband. She ran into the door with a cry of “Jack I know his building is getting torn down soon but please don’t ruin the building’s structural integrity!” 

Danny sighed. This was perfect, wasn’t it? Now he had to compete with his parents to find the poor spirit that had taken residence here, and try to get them out before his parents could catch and tear them apart. 

Of course, this was his vacation... With a reluctant sigh, Danny made his way inside. 

The house was stripped bare of anything that once was in the building. The whole reason his parents had even taken a vested interest in this place was because of the fact that it had been condemned due to the strange going ons that went down here. 

Since the house seemed to be so unwanted by the majority of the populace in this town, the bank had sold it to the city to be redeveloped. The few items that were left within the house had already been stripped out and the place had the utilities detached. It was only a matter of getting the demolition permit and the redesign approved apparently. 

Still, it felt far emptier than it should in here, yet there were such feelings just permeating the very walls of this house that Danny knew he was entering another ghost’s lair. A ghost who’s had their lair violated in some way nonetheless and was very upset about that fact. 

Ghosts, at least for Danny, were an easy fix. He knew the habits and thoughts that usually prevailed around them, having dealt with them for so long as well as being one himself, but the feeling here was off somehow…

He knew that ghosts could attach themselves to objects in the human world to anchor themselves to the material plane, but he didn’t think a ghost could do so with an entire house… at least not for a ghost that probably didn’t have a lot of access to pure ectoplasm like those that frequent Amity. 

The more that he moved around the areas of the house he realized what exactly had happened… And it wasn’t something Danny liked.

He’d heard the rumours of course… the whisperings and that of the gossiping ghosts within the Zone, and worse yet had those rumours held to the truth by the yeti of the Far Frozen… When a ghost can’t attach itself to something or find a way to fuel itself when deprived of ectoplasm something darker is formed… something much more in line with the traditional stories of ghosts people often hear or see in movies.

An hungered and deprived ghost became something more akin to a demon… and Danny was not liking where his evidence pointed. 

While a ghost could become lost to their obsession, blinded by everything that doesn’t have to do with fulfilling their obsession at times, they would still (usually) snap back to a much more balanced and coherent state, once they filled that void the obsession had left them with. So long as they still had a decent amount of ectoplasm, or were able to gain enough through the fulfillment of their obsession...

However, if a ghost goes too long without that fulfillment? Goes too long without being able to pull themselves back from the brink? Combine that with being unable to feed themselves with the very ectoplasm their bodies were usually composed of? That’s how Idée fixe or what they were more colloquially known as the ’the lost ones’ were created. 

Judging by the vibe he was getting from whatever ghost had taken up residence here… that was the exact type of monster he’d be dealing with today. That didn’t bode well for him… or more specifically his parents…

Because one thing these demonic ghosts had in common regardless of their obsession seemed to be a strong hatred for the living, mostly due to the fact that it was a human that moved the object or disrupted whatever delicate balance the ghost had maintained before they began to lose their mind to their own obsession, out of self preservation… 

He’d never seen a ghost turned demon before and he really hoped he would be able to convince his parents to leave before things get too hectic. The crash and the yelling he heard from the basement, however, said otherwise.

Danny raced as fast as he could to the basement of the house, skidding around the uneven floors and taking out a chunk of drywall from the corner as he used it to propel his turn, and keep most of his momentum and propel him down the stairs. 

He had just enough wherewithal to duck as a blast from his mother’s ecto pistol whizzed by his head. He yelped as he hit the deck, only to roll over a second later from a super powered strike from his father. 

“What-” He never got to finish his thought as he jumped back from another blast from his mother. “Mom?” he tried hopefully.

“That’s not Jack Danny! He’s been possessed by a ghost!” Maddie warned firing another blast, which Danny now recognized were heading towards his father and not him. That thought only provided minor relief as Jack swung down again. 

Danny blocked the hit but hissed out in pain from the strike. His mother gasped from behind him and that alerted him to the small crater he was now standing in. He was extremely grateful he was much more durable than an average human. If his mother had been the one hit by that…. 

He refused to let himself go down that path. Instead, he focused his anger towards pushing the large man off him. “Danny! Not you too!” Maddie’s call caused Danny to lose focus and be struck in the jaw launching him back towards his mother.

He grunts as he blinks open his eyes to look up at the teal clad woman. “Mom we… That’s not…” he shook his head as he fumbled for words. He couldn’t really say how he knew that her ghost weapons weren’t going to have any effect, not without opening a whole new can of worms he wasn’t keen on right now… 

But if he didn’t… 

“Danny… Are you alright?” Maddie’s concerned voice brought him back to being fully awake when he realized she had him half draped on her back as she ran out of the house. 

“Mom? You’re not going to win against this!” Danny urged trying to fuss away from his mother. 

“Don’t worry hun, that thing took Jack but I won’t let it get away with that.” She growled out carefully putting Danny down onto the lawn once she was able to remove them from the house. 

Danny grabbed his mother’s arm as she tried to bolt back into the fray. “Mom listen to me!” He urged. “That thing that has Dad right now… I saw you get a direct hit and it didn’t do anything! That means we need to think of something else!” 

“It means I need a stronger blaster,” Maddie shot back with an angered huff. I will not leave that thing to have its way with your father!” She growled out.

“Mom… That thing’s not even a ghost! Not really anyway.” Danny shifted from leg to leg awkwardly he had to say it… his mother would be hurt and so would his father if he didn’t…

“Well then what do you think it is?” Maddie rounded on him facing him fully now, her deep violet eyes burning with harsh emotion. 

“Darker than a ghost… it’s… beyond that…more like a ghoul...” Danny offered eyes dropping from her fiery gaze. He just couldn’t keep his hold over her eyes. Any moment they were going to be looking at him with such betrayal… disappointment… hate… 

“And how do you figure that Danny?” Maddie asked him, a little softer than he was expecting. 

“I-” Danny started but the words died in his throat. Maybe he could still talk his way out of this… “I Talked to a ghost once about this sort of thing - And before you say it I know, and they were more than nice they saved me, and no it wasn’t phantom that told me.” 

Maddie’s own jaws snapped shut with a frown and a huff. “A ghost is still not a trustworthy source of information,” she argued simply. 

“This one was, and even helped me escape and figure out some stuff at the time…. But we had time to talk and well he answered and I do believe what he’d said... “ Danny rattled off nervously. 

Maddie took a look back at the house. She stared at it long and hard for a moment before turning back to her son, eyes still burning with passion as she asked. “Fine. Then what did your ghost-” she practically spat out the word “-say to do for something like this?” 

She’d asked him! She was going to listen! “We have to fully destroy whatever object they’ve attached to before shattering their core,” Danny answered with a firm nod.

Maddie blinked a few times and it seemed that any rebuttal she was going to give was knocked out of her. “That… that actually is solid advice…” She sighed out reluctantly. 

Danny grinned brightly, happy she had given him a chance to hear him out, though he knew the only reason she was agreeing with him is because the ‘plan’ had to do with destroying a ghost. “See he’s not a bad ghost.” Danny offered to his mother giving her a sly knowing grin.

“I wouldn’t trust that ghost blindly Danny, what if they only gave you some plausible information to earn your trust? What gain would a ghost have by sharing how to destroy one of their own?” Maddie argued back.

“Well, when ghosts get like that…” Danny waved vaguely to the house. “They can taint other ghosts into losing themselves too… like a bad apple in the crop. So they actually want to put the ones like this out of their misery.”

And a misery it was indeed, according to Frostbite. “If ghosts are granted new life in death that to lose one’s mind, the only sense of self they have left, becoming a twisted version of what they once were? That, truly, is a fate worse than redeath.” the wise ghost’s words echoed in his head. 

Danny was so thankful for asking about these things once the weird monsters started popping up in Amity. He needed to know some things if he could. And this demonic ghost? So long as he didn’t take too much damage he would be alright… 

He really didn’t want to lose this fight. The loss would mean more than simply getting beaten up and hurting for a few days, or even worse someone else getting hurt… if he lost this, they would turn him into a blinded ghost himself… one of the unsavable… 

He didn’t want to think about what atrocities he would commit if he ever fell into such a state… Actually, he didn’t need to imagine, He’d seen Dan after all… Though Frostbite seemed convinced his human half would stop him from going completely off the deep end into madness, but he wasn’t about to test that theory any time soon if he could help it. 

Besides knowing him and his obsession he’d tie himself to amity park as a whole… so the only way to destroy him fully would be to take out the entire town… 

Danny shook his head, not liking his dark musings. Though something still sparked in the back of his head asking if it would be any different without Plasmius’s ghost half in his mix… He chalked that up as another theory he had zero interest in testing to focus on the matter at hand. 

Though the more he thought about the problem at hand the more his stomach knotted. Depending on how far gone that ghost was in there... “Do we have anything that can get that ghost out of Dad?” Danny asked his worried gaze, meeting his mother’s own.

“The spectre deflector should have stopped this, and we didn’t think to bring something larger than the mini ghost catcher…” Maddie answered with a frown before catching on to Danny’s deeper question. “The ghost couldn’t have attached itself to your father as a secondary... That …” she trailed off.

If that ghost did that left only one way to separate it out that didn’t involve destroying the person that the ghost had attached to… he’d have to fight the ghost inside his father, meaning he needed to get his mother to leave him alone long enough to go ghost and deal with it... 

“Do you want me to go back to the RV and stay out of your way?” Danny tried. “The last thing I want is to slow you down with something this dangerous…” 

“But what if it escapes the house and goes after you? If the ecto weapons had no effect on it I worry the ghost shield won’t keep it at bay… Which brings up a whole new slew of questions doesn’t it? And I wonder how this applies for Phantom? We haven’t been able to figure out how he gets through the shields…”

“Mom not the time…” Danny sighed.    
  
“No, you’re right… we need a proper plan, and as much as I hate to ask this, did that ghost you mentioned tell you anything about this sort of possession? The fact ghosts can evolve like this at all leaves so many more questions…” Maddie trailed off before shaking her head once again. “But if they changed to no longer have weaknesses of ghosts, perhaps…” She hummed to herself racking her brain for a potential solution. 

Danny watches as his mother’s brow furrowed deeper, her eyes seemingly reading an invisible text as she mouths the calculations she was running through in her head. “I would need something the strength of the Fenton Peeler.” She concluded after a moment.

“Okay…” Danny offered with a hesitant nod. “So that means what then for us?” 

“It means I need to power up the guns from the ones that are currently hardwired to the GAV,” she responds.

“Well, you should start that then… I’ll keep an eye on the house and make sure that the ghost doesn’t try to escape with Dad.” Danny tried hoping that his mother would take that, giving him a chance to work his ‘magic’ without her prying eyes.

“Are you sure you’ll be alright? You’re not exactly … athletic hun…” Maddie tried to say as gently as possible, “If something were to happen are you confident you can make it to the RV?” 

The fact she had asked at least meant she was leaning towards the idea… “Yea, I know at the very least I’ll be able to hide.” 

“Alright… but remember to follow the Fenton procedures for dealing with ghosts regardless…” Maddie urged. 

“I’ll be fine, Hurry and get the equipment sorted. The longer we talk the more the ghost will sink its, um, evil talons into Dad.” 

Maddie gave one last reluctant sigh before jogging away to the end of the driveway where the Fenton RV sat. Danny gave his mother a smile before ducking into the nearest bush to ‘watch the house from.’ A quick flash of light later and Danny was good to go. 

He turned invisible and phased his way into the house heading down to where he had last seen his possessed father. Danny took a steadying breath when he finally located the man he was looking for, who, thankfully, hadn’t really moved too far from the last spot he’d been in before Danny and Maddie fleed the basement to regroup. 

Jack looked pale and his normally deep blue eyes had a red ring around the iris and the pupils looked reflective like an animal’s in the dark when a car’s headlights illuminate them. He was staring straight ahead unblinkingly and every so often, he would shake and inhale a harsh breath like he had forgotten…. Or rather the ghost controlling him had forgotten… 

Steeling his nerves, Danny readied his mind as best he could and lunged phasing into the body of his father. 

Instantly he felt disoriented and hot. The opposing ghost lashed out at him, trying to smother him with her sorrow and despair. Her madness was extremely prevalent in the way she attacked. There was no thought it was the desperation of a caged animal, and any opening Danny had she’d found pushing her metal power against his. Wild fury versus righteous protective spirit.

Danny saw flashes as he pushed back against the demonic ghost. Flashes of her life, her death, her anger… and when Danny flinched mentally she pushed back redoubling her efforts to expel him from the host she had taken. This man was hers now and she wasn’t about to give him up again!

Danny pushed hard. He could not lose this! His core flared and thrummed angrily as his own obsession brushed against hers in a literal battle of wills. Then suddenly she relented to her own lack of stamina, having so little ectoplasm collected, while initially more powerful than Danny thought, she burned through her energy quickly and didn’t have the build up Danny prided himself on. 

He really needed a mountain’s worth of energy to be able to stay awake and alert for almost three days straight and fight constantly all the while.

So he pushed and pushed hard, and it wasn’t long before the other ghost, that demonic presence, went flying out of Jack’s chest. 

The ghost, mostly a black misty shape with deep red eyes, that reminded Danny far too much of a snake like Spectra for his liking, hissed, baring her fangs. She growled deeply a static like sound before diving into the walls and fleeing, no doubt heading back to wherever she’d stashed her object to recharge. 

Still, Danny couldn’t help the sigh that escaped him seeing her turn to flee. Now for the tricky part of getting Jack out of here and making it look that he had found his father leaving and passed out… and if he was lucky, his mother wouldn’t be too keen to ask more than a few questions… He was kind of banking on the hope Maddie would be so overwhelmed with happiness that Jack was safe that she wouldn’t be thinking all that straight on the topic of how exactly. 

Danny shook his head, first thing’s first, he had to get Jack out of here before that demonic ghost can return. With a push and through sheer force of will he moved his father to exit the basement, passing by the practically shredded Specter deflector as he ascended the stairs. He was lucky that it wasn’t still active on his father, or he wouldn’t have even been able to help him. 

Danny did his best to ignore the groaning and shifting within the very walls of the house. It took only a moment for him to fully realize that the noises weren’t just that of a shifting foundation and settling old bones of the house. 

A sulfuric scent hit his nostrils as he entered the kitchen area, he only had a small patch to cross into the living area and then out the door, but the scent made him pause. He recognized the rotten eggy sulphur. The stove had been smashed recently and a soft hissing sound came from the appliance.    
  
“Suffering spooks!” Danny exclaimed, blaming the chosen expletive on the fact he was currently possessing his father. The ghost demon from earlier popped her head up with a fiendish smile, staring at Danny /Jack before lighting her palm with a too bright neon orange flame. 

The intent was clear.

Danny’s eyes widened as she gave him a smug look. “I will not let you ‘ _ men’ _ leave here alive.” she hissed spitting out the word men like it was a foul flavour on her tongue. 

She moved her flaming hand to the side of the stove where it was cracked near the gas line, and Danny reacted without thinking. 

He flew out of his father’s body and covered the man’s face, chest and stomach, with his own. His shield fizzled out as the flames rocked the ecto construct. He hadn’t had enough time to fortify the thing leaving it weak and easily broken. 

Plan B then… Ice. Given this was a ghostly powered fire, at least partially his intangibility wouldn’t do him any good...

And ice he used en mass creating a mini blizzard tornado around them as he pushed all he could into the defensive move. Jack, unconscious and being held up by Danny’s strength alone was putting a further burden on him to keep his father safe. 

It felt like the flames continued on forever, the stove suddenly having turned into a flamethrower was keeping up the assault. The demonic woman no longer needed to keep up the attack, disappeared leaving them to let the fire decide their fates. 

Danny carefully tried to pull his father backwards keeping up the icy cover swirling around them to keep the man from cooking alive. Jack was anything but a small man, however, and while Danny’s height had caught up to him with his latest growth spurt he was still nowhere near the hulking mass that was Jack. It made him awkward and slow to move… 

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how he looked at the situation, Jack began to stir while Danny’s eyes were focused elsewhere in concentration. 

Jack blinked awake seeing a wall of blue just a little bit in front of him. IT took him a moment to realize it was a wall of swirling snow, and that he could feel his arm slung around a solid form… something that felt even colder than the snowy wall just a foot away from him. Between the thinner parts of the icy power, he could just make out the flames beyond and the steam and hissing noises that accompanied it. 

Jack blinked slowly, his head was throbbing but he could feel his heels dragging along lifelessly. Why was he… He suddenly tensed as his fuzzy mind supplied him with the hazy memories of all that had happened… and... He looked over to the solid cold he was hugging. “Phantom…” He whispered out in amazement. 

He remembered like he had been dreaming… he attacked his son then Phantom came… he remembered the demon ghost’s feelings of hate towards him and his son, her spite… then Phantom came and that hate was tripled… until…. 

Phantom pushed her out and took control of him, his fuzzied mind recalled a feeling of urgency, he could feel Phantom’s want to keep him safe, there was no ulterior motive, just the want to get him outside of this house, and worry. 

He didn’t understand it. They knew Phantom liked to play up the superhero role more than anything, but they had always assumed the ghost had fed off the adoration that the humans gave to him.

But now… Feeling that? Jack wasn’t so sure. 

Phantom looked to him wide, cyan blue eyes filled with worry. Cyan? Phantom always had green eyes… He looked to the ice again taking instant notice that the ice and his eyes were the same colour. 

“Can you walk?” Phantom grunted out. Moving to right Jack up onto his feet rather than drag him haphazardly. 

In his lapse of concentration, his eyes dipped back to green and the fire from beyond the wall of ice hit instantly. Phantom hissed and brought his power back under his control forcing the ice storm back in place. 

“Yeah,” Jack answered hesitantly. “But why are you here? We’re over two hours away from Amity…” 

Phantom looked sheepish a moment before offering a ‘winning’ smile that he always used for reporters when they tried to catch him for an interview. “Your son called me here…” He answered after a moment of what looked like an internal debate. 

“Danno?” Jack asked in uncertainty. “How did-”    
  
“Later, We need to get you out first, this ghost’s on home turf and that fire’s strong. I can’t keep this up all day ya know.” 

Danny switched his focus back to holding up his father after that. Hopefully, it would buy him some time to think of something that would sound plausible for his parents once ‘Danny’ reappeared. 

Thankfully with Jack now able to move himself, it was a lot easier to keep up his concentration. 

Slowly they made their way out of the house, the lair, and Danny was quick to fall forward in exhaustion once Jack and him passed the threshold of the front door. 

On his hands and knees, panting heavily, he could hardly bring himself to wince as he heard the telltale whirr of an ecto powered weapon sputter to life. It figured... He wouldn’t be so lucky as to be able to get out of here Scott free with his mother watching the area like a hawk. He was an easy target now, exhausted as he was, and he only hoped that his parents would forgive him if he had to resort to showing them… well him. 

He braced himself for an attack, eyes squinting shut in fear and anticipation of the pain that was sure to follow. 

When nothing came after a moment He carefully peeked open an eye and stared up at the backside of the wall of a man that was Jack Fenton. “Maddie don’t,” he said simply. 

Danny was touched. His father was protecting Phantom? Since when …. Did he make that much of an impact on the man while pulling him from the fires?

“Jack no! Phantom followed us here for some reason or another, he probably hoped to get rid of us out here with the help of that fiend in there!” Maddie argued back.

Jack shook his head. “No… No that’s not it Mads. Just please trust me on this and let’s just get Danno and go home.” the man argued back. 

Danny peered around his father’s bulk to look at the glare his mother was giving him with hope filling his core. Eventually, she sighed and lowered her gun before sending a sneer to the ghost of her son. “Jack… Fine… Phantom! If I catch you around my family again you’ll pay for it. Consider this your lucky break for keeping Jack safe from that… explosion…” Maddie practically spat out the words of praise to him. 

Danny still couldn’t help but smile at that. It wasn’t much but it was a start. Pulling all the remaining energy he could from his core, he stood. And nodded to the huntress. “Understood M- Ma-am…” 

Danny offered his mother a two fingered salute before with all his remaining power he turned himself invisible and zipped off and away back to the bush he had been hiding in before.

He practically crashed into the ground as he landed and transformed back a moment later with a groan. Without the ghostly influence over his body, Danny instantly face planted, and a second later his world was pulled into darkness. 

When Danny woke up next it was to the gentle hum of the RV as it pushed forward down the road and with his mother’s hand gently combing through his hair. “Mum…?” He groaned out. 

“Danny… What happened? You were burned and passed out in a bush… Jack said something about Phantom being sent to help by you… What did you do?” Maddie asked, not even bothering to try to hide the worry in her voice. 

“I… Wait what happened with that ghost?” Danny asked, much more concerned with what happened after he had passed out than the fact he had gotten hurt. He was far too used to being injured for that fact to bother him all that much.

“We eventually got rid of it. We’d found what was tying it here and cut that tie off. That thing is gone now, but that’s not what’s important here Hun… Answer me about Phantom. Did you somehow summon him? And don’t try to talk your way out of this mister I want the truth!” Maddie pressed, her face set in a stern disapproving motherly scowl.

“I- … I just… Promise you won’t be mad?” Danny asked quietly nervously, turning his gaze away from his mother’s steely one to stare out at the passing scenery. He never saw the glance that his parents shared as Danny took a deep breath to try to calm his pounding heart and frayed nerves.    
  


“What is it hun, What’s wrong?” Maddie asked, pulling her son into an embrace. 

“Maybe... Maybe I should start at the beginning… Well back when you guys first built the portal...” 

Danny told his story and explained his adventures to his parents who thankfully had decided to pull over to offer him their full attention, considering Jack was driving that was probably a good decision… 

Regardless they listened, and his mother cried as his father squashed him in a hug that he was sure he’d have to phase out of, and the best part was they had said that they still loved him. Seeing Phantom as a kid trying to make the best out of the powers he was given suddenly put his actions into their true light. 

He wasn’t destructive on purpose after all but once a klutz always a klutz it seemed, whether he was on his own two feet or floating atop a ghostly tail… 

It was nice… and his father suggested they stop for ice cream on the way home which was a welcome distraction to the heavy feelings once they had their tears finally dry up. Danny had made mention then of the other creatures he had encountered, and his parents nodded solemnly a pitied understanding look written on their faces. 

It was then he’d learned the flipside to his parent’s obsession. While they specialize in ghosts, Jack having come from a hunter’s family knew all too well about the creatures that often bump about in the night. 

Danny was amazed and fascinated and terrified all at once. He’d known somethings out there were real, sure, though he also had ignorantly assumed that it was mostly due to the ghostly influence of the town. 

Still the well of knowledge his parents had on all things supernatural amazed him… perhaps... Perhaps he had a bigger calling after all. 

And who knows, once he’s out of school he may take his parents up on calling some old friends, a pair of brothers Jack knew, the Westchester’s or something, to train him on how to deal with the other demons in the night. 

Until then, he was happy to protect Amity to the best of his abilities. 

And knowing he was accepted and still loved by his parents made it all the more with it.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Complete   
Total word count: 8234

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> So this concludes Phic Phight 2020! I hope you all enjoyed my entries into the Phight as much as I enjoyed writing them! I love looking through each persons prompts and seeing how two people fill the same one :) It's interesting to see how others can take the same thing into a totally different direction! But regardless I hope you enjoyed, You can also find these prompts on Ff.net as well as on my tumbler page (Burning_clutch) 
> 
> I'd be open to people direct messaging me with DP prompts as well, I can't say my lazy ass will actually fill it in a timely manner (or at all) but hey I'll throw it out there. I seem to be better at writing one shots anyway :P 
> 
> Stay safe!


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